Participants of Humanity
by JustAnotherPseudonym
Summary: SEQUEL TO SUBJECTS OF HUMANITY. In research, the difference between a subject and a participant is their abiltiy to consent to the experiment. AUKigo
1. Telling Lies

**Author's Note: sequel to Subjects of Humanity. This can't be read and understood without reading that first.**

**Disclaimers: I don't own Kim Possible. Also, please keep in mind that there is (M)ature content herein. This includes violence, explicit language and sexual content.**

**Telling Lies**

Kim felt like she had been implanted into the fairy tale _Little Red Riding Hood_, except she wasn't Little Red and there would be no woodsman to come and save her. In this version of the story, she was the wolf and was doing her very best to answer the questions that were meant to expose her as a hoodwinker. Kim could imagine her mother in the red hood saying, 'why what big eyes you have, Kimmie' in an effort to physically prove that her own eyes were betraying her, and that her daughter really wasn't sitting across the dining room table.

"I don't understand this at all," Dr. Possible's head fell into her hands. "You've been gone for so long. We buried your body."

Kim released a heavy sigh. "I know it's hard to believe—almost impossible actually—but it's the truth."

"Clones?" Dr. Possible gave a small shake of her head. "You're asking me to believe that I buried your clone—that you've been alive all this time stuck in some coma?"

"Yes," Kim didn't even stutter over the word. "Shego and I survived our fall, except I ended up in a coma and she ended up paralyzed."

"And what?" Anne Possible threw her hands up in the air. "She just couldn't find a phone to let us know that you were still alive?"

Kim didn't remember her mother being this sarcastic before. There were a lot of things about her mother that Kim noticed had changed. The physical signs of age were there, but Kim expected to see that. It was the internalized changes that Kim wasn't completely prepared for. She hadn't expected her mother to become so unrelenting and jagged. The warmth Kim remembered her mother exuding seemed to have turned lukewarm at best. Anne Possible had changed, and Kim could make an educated guess as to what caused her mother to become so different than she had remembered. Of course, Kim wasn't blind to the irony that her mother probably felt the same way about her.

"The fall," Kim steadily replied, "it changed her. She started seeing things—things that weren't there. She kind of just…lost it."

"Then where were you?" Anne was digging to find the inconsistencies that lied underneath Kim's words, using great effort to not give into the urge to believe the unbelievable. "Who took care of you? Where did these clones come from?"

"We don't know," Kim infused her words with the helplessness she knew should accompany them. "It's been so confusing," Kim dropped her own head into her hands. "Things are different and everyone thinks I'm dead."

It had taken Shego a while to teach Kim how to cry on demand. It had taken them even longer to manufacture enough evidence for their story to be believable. If they were going to assume the lives of their original selves then they'd have to come up with something intelligent people would believe. Telling the actual truth was immediately ruled out since Animatus was still a threat. They had been able to leave him, but they hadn't managed to kill him.

They couldn't take any risks, and since they knew next to nothing about him and hadn't even quite figured out how he ended up with an undetected facility underground that was probably as big as Middleton, they weren't in any position to defend themselves against unknown attacks. It wouldn't be wise for them to assume that he worked alone, and for some reason neither one of them thought telling someone their dead bodies were abducted by an A.I. who reanimated them and then cloned them off to become subjects in a research venture was going to earn them any sanity points, and would probably expose them to more than one joke about Frankenstein.

Besides, if they talked about Animatus, then they would also have to talk about how they really shouldn't exist at all. They would have to admit that they weren't the original Kim and the original Shego. The lives they remembered having before the hero and villain had died would not be theirs to claim. Everyone would want to rescue the real Kim and by association the real Shego. No one would even care that they were the ones that walked out of Animatus's world intact. No one would recognize that they were the ones that deserved to have this life. No one would understand the pain they had gone through to be able to survive. No one would understand that they were better than the Shego and Kim who were still in Animatus's sadistic world.

"I just," Kim wiped at her tears, "I just want my real life back."

Unable to remain firm while her daughter cried helplessly in front of her, and too willing to believe that the reality she wanted to be a nightmare really was an unwanted dream, Anne Possible stood up from her seat and then walked around the table. She cradled her daughter's head against her chest, and then began to cry herself. Her little girl had come home.

Kim wrapped her arms around her mother's waist, and the crocodile tears she had been shedding easily became very real. She needed her family to believe the lie she and Shego had concocted, but there was a part of her that wanted to reveal the truth in all its gory detail so that her mother could cradle her in a warm embrace and give her absolution for the atrocities she had committed. Kim had always sought approval and acceptance from her family, and that need hadn't been altered by experience or time, but Kim realized that the woman who held her now wasn't her mother. This woman, who held onto her so tightly, was Kim Possible's mother and not hers. Animatus was her mother, her father, and her sole creator.

After a long while of being held in Anne Possible's embrace, Kim pulled away and wiped away her tears. It was time she finished telling her story—her lie. "After I got caught up with the current events of what was supposed to have happened to me, I wasn't even sure I should try and come back. I thought it might be better to…stay dead."

"No, Kimberly," Anne reached out for her daughter's hand, needing the physical contact so that her brain didn't convince her she was just talking to a ghost. "That would never be better. We've missed you so much. I'm glad you decided to come back."

Kim ran her free hand through her auburn hair. "I didn't…" She took a deep breath. "I didn't come back immediately," she admitted in a rush of words. "I stayed to help Shego. Her body was healing, but her mind…" Her words trailed off, giving the illusion that her mind was stuck reliving the memories of her falsified past.

Anne gently squeezed the hand she held in her own. "Where is Shego now?" She asked as delicately as she could, not wanting to cause her daughter unneeded distress.

"She's better," Kim offered a noticeably false smile. "She's walking again. Her powers, I think, helped her heal from wounds nobody else could."

"Oh, Kimmie," Anne released her daughter's hand and then reached over to brush back the hair covering part of Kim's face. "What's wrong?" She, like many mothers before her, took solace in being able to see through the words her child spoke to the unvoiced core where the truth supposedly rested.

Kim hurriedly stood up and then began pacing in the small space available to her. Real nervousness bled into the artificial emotion Kim had practiced displaying. She and Shego were relying so much on their ability to tell a believable lie. They had to answer so many questions, fill in so many blanks. They had a daughter to explain away.

"So many things are different," Kim stumbled over words. "I have a daughter, and I think she might be Shego's and I have no idea how it happened." She said in rush, already having decided that partial truth was better than a complete lie. Kim technically had no knowledge of how it was she had been impregnated with Shego's child and wasn't looking to repeat the experience. Athena was lucky to have survived Animatus's experiment, and Kim wasn't confident that another child would manage to be as strong.

Anne leaned over and rested her head in her hands. "Maybe you should start your story from the beginning, Kim."

Hearing the disbelief bleed through her mother's words, Kim quickly modified her story intent on making her mother believe even if it meant calling forth the Kim she had become during Animatus's trials: the Kimberly Possible who would and did do anything to win no matter the cost or sacrifice. The family she now sought to seek entry into was important to her, more important than was probably healthy for her, but they were important even though she clearly recognized that they weren't technically hers. She carried the memories of the Kim who had come before her. They were tangible and flowing in Technicolor with its own unique soundtrack, bringing heartache and joys that she knew formed part of her core personality.

The life that technically wasn't hers, was now sitting in front of her to take and hold onto. She deserved more than the Kim that had died. She was stronger than that Kim, and had a family to think of that included a daughter and a lover that had come to mean more to her than the family who thought had buried her. So, Kim gathered up her solid unflinching will and forced her mother to believe her. She leaned against the nearest counter, her back facing her mother and let the power Animatus had cursed upon her to come forth.

"It's a long story," she told the countertop below her, putting emotion in her words that she knew her mother would ache from hearing. "I don't remember how a lot of things happened, and it's not something that is easy to talk about." She slowly turned and then just as slowly lifted her eyes to seek out her mother's curious agony filled gaze. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to talk about everything. There are scars all over my body and…marks. The only thing I can say for certain, the only thing I know for certain is that I have daughter that I love and found a best friend in a person I thought I'd hate forever."

One of the last things Shego had told Kim before they left to convince the world they had come back to life was a reminder that Kim had to make her family believe that she was a different person. She had to make her family realize that the Kim they had thought dead really was buried, or no one would be able to accept them. Shego had even said that telling some of the truth would help, since they had both lived through things that had changed them forever, even though they were the clones and not the originals.

Anne Possible removed her head from her hand and then stood up. She walked over to the visage of her daughter, and then stared into the eyes that were so like the child she had raised but still vastly different than she remembered. Her arms reached out and drew the younger woman closer to her body. She rested Kim's head onto her shoulder and expressed the only words that Kim desired to hear, "It doesn't matter what happened, Kimmie. You're here now, and that's all I care about."

Kim wrapped her arms around her new mother and released a relieved breath across Anne Possible's shoulder. She could go back to Shego knowing that her family would blindly follow her lead. They were going to have a new life now, unknowingly given to them by their original selves.

"I love you so much, Mom." Her words were the truth. Her sentiment was genuine. Yet, for some reason she felt oddly disconnected from the manipulation she had just manufactured.

Anne released her daughter from her hold, forcing a smile on her face trying to quickly accept changes that she never ever conceived possible. Her husband may have that idiotic adage that, 'Anything is possible for a Possible' but she new better than to believe it. She was a doctor, and understood that sometimes things just weren't possible, but since she got her daughter back she was willing to pretend once again that anything really was possible.

"So," Anne's eyes darted around the small room as if expecting another surprised to jump out and attack her from behind, "when do I get to meet my granddaughter."

"She's with Shego now," Kim happily followed the change in subject. "I wasn't sure how to do," her arms waved around the room expressing her internal uncertainty, "this. I wasn't sure how to talk to you, and I didn't want to involve Athena."

"Athena?" Anne tested the name in her head, knowing that somehow it didn't quite fit with the daughter she remembered. Kim had never taken particular interest in Greek mythology, but the Kim she had known wasn't standing in front of her. The person in front of her now was a young woman she still needed to be introduced to. "Did Shego name her?"

"Sort of," Kim admitted, knowing that she couldn't tell her mother that Animatus had named her daughter as some sort of deluded gesture of kindness to her lover. "We both decided on it."

They had both just accepted Athena's name, fearing the price Animatus would ask for if they had changed it. They had grown to like the name, recognizing the name as one of strength and hope for a future. While they never would verbally admit that Athena was truly a gift from Animatus, they recognized their child as such. In what was as clichéd as picket fences and football games played on Sunday, Kim and Shego believed the pain they went through was worth it in the face of having their daughter now with them. It was all worth it in the end, even if 'end' really wasn't currently being used in line with its definition.

Things weren't over. Nothing had truly ended. They had moved on and now were making efforts to build a life they knew Animatus wasn't entirely separate from. They could never push him out of their lives, and had no clue as to where to start the pushing even if they did want to make elaborate plans to make him disappear.

"Then when do I get to see the both of them?" Anne couldn't begin to imagine the changes Shego had gone through if her daughter was any indication of what might have happened to them both. Kim was very different, and not just in mind. Her body had changed beyond the normal ascent from puberty into adulthood.

"Shego is just waiting for me to call her."

"Then perhaps you should." Her mother offered. Pushing her doubts back down, knowing that with time she would be able push down all her doubts with little effort. She would sacrifice her logic and reason so that she could have her daughter back, and gain a granddaughter.

Kim smiled genuinely now. She wanted Shego to be standing next to her. She wanted her daughter within her sight. It wasn't easy to be apart from them, since they were quite literally her whole world. Everything she now did was so that she could make life better for them as a family.

So, Kim reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out a cellular phone, one of the first items Shego and she bought when they left Animatus's labs. She dialed Shego's number and when Shego's voice came through the small mechanical device she couldn't help that her smile grew even wider. "Mom wants to meet Athena," Kim told her partner, knowing full well that Shego could hear all the levels of relief that were in her voice.

"Then we'll be there," Shego responded. "I knew you could do this."

"I know," Kim couldn't help that her eyes fell away from her mother's form. "I'll see you soon."

They both knew to measure success not in the great battles won, but in the small victories that added up to what once seemed absolute defeat. That's how they had outgrown Animatus's cage, and they hardly knew how to fight a battle any other way. Kim's father still needed to be approached, but he would follow Anne's lead. Kim remembered that much about her father. He was never the dominant one in his relationship and more than a little naïve when it came to the world around him.

So, Kim and Shego would take this current small victory and would work on making the world believe that they had returned. They would slowly take over this world like they had taken over Animatus's. They would be in control and no one else would realize it, because for better or worse they were Animatus's children. He had taught them well.


	2. False Death

**Disclaimers in Chapter One**

**False Death**

Shego stood outside of the suburban residence staring at the front door with her daughter in her arms. She was preparing herself for the attack that was most certainly going to be handed down to her. Kim's mother had never particularly cared for her, and Shego suspected that the woman never really would.

It's not like they had ever gotten off on the right foot. Shego had always been out to hurt Kim, and parents didn't simply forget these types of things. Certainly, no parent would forget the reason, the person responsible, for their child's death.

Contentious. That was Kim's and Shego's relationship as Anne Possible had understood it. Shego was the bad guy, the evil one, the one that should be stopped at all costs. The price for stopping her had meant Kim's life, and now Shego and Kim were asking Anne Possible to believe that none of that mattered anymore.

Shego had never felt any guilt about the fall she and Kim had taken together. She never had time to think about it much after she had woken up in Animatus's world. More important things had taken her attention, but even now as Shego had a moment to stop and think about the life she had been given, she still felt no remorse.

Ultimately, she wasn't the one that had that final altercation with Kim, but even if she had been she was positive she wouldn't feel guilty. It didn't make sense to feel guilty about something that had killed her. Guilt was a luxury for those who didn't understand what it meant to fight for their survival. Even Kim had eventually sacrificed guilt so that she could continue her own life. It was necessity, as it was a necessity for Shego to somehow convince Anne Possible that somehow contentiousness had turned into love.

The front door opened just as Shego was preparing to knock. Kim had seen Shego approach the house, and had been impatiently waiting for a knock on the door. When her patience had run out she swung the door open and then immediately reached out for her daughter as Athena reached out to her.

"Mom's waiting in the living room," Kim told Shego as Athena settled into her arms. What she left unsaid was that it was now Shego's turn to integrate into a life that had never originally been part of her fate. Kim had done her part, had succeeded in her trial.

Shego nodded. "How do I look?"

Kim smirked. "You look like a completely different person."

Neither of them had walked out of Animatus's domain looking like the bodies that he had originally taken. His experiments had altered them both physically and emotionally. Animatus had adapted them to fit his trials. He had enhanced them in ways they never would have asked for. He only sought to strengthen those attributes he saw as weaknesses, but none of those changes could be seen in Shego now.

Using skills from a life almost completely forgotten, Shego used makeup to lighten her skin to the color it had been in her first foray into the living. Her skin had grown into a deeper shade of green as Animatus had enhanced her plasma abilities, and would have caused speculation as to the reasons for the change. So, she lightened her skin tone, making it even paler than it had been before.

For the first time in a long time, Shego looked weak and frail. She looked nothing like the person Kim had been sharing her life with. Shego looked beaten and walked as if she could hardly continue to stand. They had said that they had fallen from a great distance and survived. Shego supposedly got the brunt of the impact, both physically and mentally.

It was important that Kim come back marred but strong and Shego return weakened and almost broken. No one would rush off to kill someone they pitied. The only scar that marked Kim where her clothes did not cover was a small jagged mark on her forearm. It wasn't created by the illusion of makeup. It was real. It was Shego's mark. It rested in the same spot Animatus's chip had once been placed just beneath the surface.

"Goodness," Anne Possible gasped out as she entered the foyer, no longer willing to wait to lay her eyes upon Shego and the granddaughter she had recently learned existed. "What happened to you?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Shego answered. "You should meet your granddaughter."

Kim stroked her child's head, whispered into Athena's ear that she needed to remember what they had said about playing pretend, and then presented the child to her mother. "This is Athena."

Anne reached out for the toddler, but pulled her hand away quickly when Athena uttered a tortured, "No!" and then burrowed deeper into her mother's shoulder.

"Sorry, Mom," Kim hurried to explain. "Athena isn't used to other people touching her yet." It was a lie. Athena had been examined and prodded by Animatus's robots since she was born. She understood that it was important to stay still and keep quiet so that Animatus wouldn't hurt her, but Athena's parents had told her that it was time she play pretend and turn away from anyone who reached out for her. She needed to pretend that she didn't want anyone touching her.

Athena didn't understand everything that went on around her, but she understood a lot. She knew it was always the most important thing to listen to what her parents told her to do. They had been the strongest people in their small community, and somehow that strength had forged an understanding in the small child. She had seen her parents exert their control over others and had coveted that strength as her own, and on basic animal instinct bowed down to it.

"It's fine," Anne's hands fell back down to her sides. "I understand." Her attention went back to Shego, dissecting the woman that had taken her daughter away, and a part of her felt that Shego didn't look like she was in enough pain. She didn't look like she had suffered enough for everything she had done.

Shego understood the disapproving look Anne Possible gave her. She expected it, and knew there was nothing she could do to prevent it and nothing Kim could say to stop it.

"Have you let your brothers know that you're alive?" Anne asked, keeping her voice pleasant and interested.

"No," Shego shook her head. "Kim wanted you to be the first to know; I respected her decision."

They moved away from the front door and then sat down in the living room. They maintained an awkward silence as the seconds ticked away on the clock. Athena kept close to her parents, not once showing any warmth towards her grandmother.

Anne eventually grew tired of the silence, and tired of pretending that it was completely normal for Kim to be seated next to Shego on her couch with their child. "I can't do this," Anne stood from her seat. "I'm sorry, Kim but I can't sit here and look at you and pretend like you haven't been dead."

"I know," Shego said calmly. "It's hard, isn't it?" Shego shifted on the couch so that she could move further away from Kim, giving into Anne's silent wish for separation between her daughter and the woman she had grown to hate. "One day you're living your life one way, and then the next day comes and everything is different. You're not the person you thought you were. You don't have the life you thought you had. Everyone you thought you knew, you don't quite remember anymore. You've changed and everything around you has changed, and all you remember doing is falling asleep."

"I didn't want to come back," Kim confessed. "It was easier being alone with Shego and Athena. We didn't have to try and find answers for things that we didn't even want to talk about. We would have been happy."

"Then why come back at all?" Anne forced herself to ask, knowing that part of her honestly felt that perhaps it would have been better if Kim had just stayed dead.

"Because she's Kim Possible," Shego chuckled, "and still believes she can do anything. She wanted her family back." Again it was only a half-truth. They both would have been happy to live far away from Middleton and its occupants. They would have been happy to start new lives and become new people, but they also knew that eventually that world would crumble. The years had passed, but the world would eventually recognize them. Someone would lay eyes on them and would remember that they were supposed to be dead.

Animatus might have even eventually found them and given away their identities. They couldn't trust him to maintain silence until he was dead, and they couldn't kill him while living in another part of the world. So, Shego spoke a half-truth because her partner did believe that they could do anything, and Kim had her heart set on finding a way to kill Animatus for everything he had put them through. They both had their hearts set on it, and it wasn't a mission they were willing to give up.

"And what did you want?" Anne struggled with her words. She didn't want to start yelling at Shego in Athena's presence.

"I'm a wanted criminal who the world thinks killed Kim Possible. My body is broken and pathetic. What do you think I wanted to do?"

"You could have stayed dead," Anne challenged. "You didn't have to come back."

"No," Kim shook her head. "That wouldn't have been fair, wouldn't have been right."

"Fine." Anne closed her eyes as she rubbed at her forehead in an attempt to rub away the anger and frustration that was building inside of her. "When need to call your brothers, Kimmie and let them know that..." Her words faltered. She was beginning to fall apart. "And we'll need to get your father home as well. And um...everyone else. Everyone will want to know that you've come back, and that you're okay. Your grandmother died shortly after you did so there's no need to bother with her."

"Mom," Kim spoke before her mother could continue, "there's no need for all of that right now."

"Oh, of course," Anne's hand shakily fell down to her side. "I'm sure you both want to rest. You'll be staying here, of course."

"Mom," Kim interrupted again. "Let's settle down a little, okay?"

"Yes, of course, let me just go and call your father." Anne hurried out of the room before Kim had a chance to call her back.

"I'd say this is going well," Shego gathered her daughter up in her arms. "I think we've broken your grandmother," She whispered to Athena.

"Don't say that," Kim playfully slapped Shego on the leg. "We've asked a lot of her."

Shego turned her attention away from the young girl playing in her arms to the woman sitting next to her. "Are you ready to deal with everyone else, because she's in there calling for backup?"

"Are you ready for it?" Kim moved closer to her partner. "More people want you dead than they do me."

"I've got the easy part, Lover," Shego smirked. "You're the hero."

"No, I'm not," Kim sighed. "I've never been a hero."

"But they don't know that, Kimmie" Shego's airy tone did nothing to cover the serious undertone of her words. "We both decided to come back to this, and now it's time we deal with the consequences of it."

Kim took in a deep breath and then slowly released it. "I know." She reached out for Shego's hand. "Do you think they're going to arrest you?"

"I don't know," Shego ran her thumb across the smooth skin of Kim's hand. "If they do I'm sure our good friend Animatus will get a real kick out of it."

"So, you do think he's still watching us?" They had talked about the possibility before. After the years spent in Animatus's world, they couldn't believe that he would just let them walk away without continuing his studies. They couldn't be completely sure what trials he was putting them through now, but they felt his hand in their lives as they had always felt it.

"Always."

Anne came back into the room with the same rattled demeanor she had left with. If she had made any phone calls at all, then she hadn't been gone long enough to give any detailed information to anyone. She would have had to speed dial through her phone book and simply told those ignorant enough to answer that Kimberly Possible was alive.

"Your father is on his way home," Anne didn't look at her daughter as she spoke. Her attention was focused on the family picture that hung on the wall behind Kim's head. They had taken it before Kim had died. It was at Kim's high school graduation. Ron Stoppable had even managed to finagle his way in it, despite Anne's weak objections. She hadn't wanted Ron in the picture, just in case Ron and Kim had broken up she didn't want to be left with the possibility of Kim ruining the beautiful image by cutting Ron out of it.

We'll, Anne chuckled humorlessly, Kim and Ron had certainly never broken up. Kim had just died, and now she was back. Anne's eyes flickered down to the woman sitting below the picture and traced the foreign body with her eyes until she saw Kim's hand being lovingly held inside of Shego's. No, Anne decided as she stared at her daughter's hand, the Kim in that picture was still dead, and that Kim was never coming back.

"Athena must be tired," Anne said to her daughter. "We should get her settled upstairs." Her gaze spanned over the three bodies in front of her. "We should get you all settled. I'm sure you'd like to get settled before..."

"Thanks, Mom," Kim said when she realized her mother wasn't going to finish her sentence. She couldn't remember ever seeing her mother like this before, but then again she had never seen her mother after coming back from the dead.

"I'm going to go get the spare room ready for you." Anne was already halfway up the stairs by the time she had finished speaking. She needed space, otherwise she just might give into her impulse to cover up her eyes and pretend like she was the only one in the house.

"I think we have broken her," Kim joked as her mother disappeared from view again.

"Don't say that," Shego mocked. "We've asked a lot of her."

"Don't," Kim playfully warned. "I've never seen my mother act this way before. I'm starting to worry."

"Give her time," Shego looked to the ceiling where she could hear things being moved around in the room directly above her. "She's a strong woman. She'll manage to pull herself together."

They both sat silently listening to the noise Anne was making upstairs, neither quite sure whether Anne was making the space habitable for them or tearing it apart. Things were still being pushed around when the front door to the house opened and closed. James called out to his wife, having rushed home after getting a phone call from her that he knew was quite impossible. He was so intent on finding his wife that he walked right past Kim, Shego, and Athena.

He began walking up the stairs and almost reached the top before he stopped to turn around and make sure that his daughter wasn't sitting in his living room leaning against Shego with a child sleeping between them. When his eyes reconfirmed what it is he thought he had seen, he calmly turned around and walked back down the stairs. He then approached his daughter and calmly asked, "What's going on?"

"I'm so sorry, Daddy." The moment his eyes had turned to her, Kim had started crying genuine tears. She hadn't quite realized how much she had missed him until he had walked into the room.

The confusion showing in his eyes went away and was quickly replaced with anger. "It's probably best that you leave."

"Daddy," Kim gently removed Athena from her body so that she could stand up and face her father. "Let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain." James's anger intensified. "My daughter is dead, and you're a very sick person to come into my home and pretend otherwise." He turned away from them. "Get out of here before I call the police."

"But," Kim began to protest but stopped when Shego grabbed onto her arm, forcing her attention away from the angry man walking away from them.

"It's time we go, Kimmie," Shego told her lover.

"Don't you dare call her that!" James's words came out in a staccato scream.

"I'm just calling her by her name," Shego defended herself.

"Liar!" James rushed up to Shego and grabbed the woman by the front of her shirt. "Get out of my house!" He shoved Shego away from him, toppling her to the ground. "You're no Shego, and that woman is not my daughter."

"We'll leave," Shego slowly got up from the floor, making sure she made it look like she was having great difficulty in completing the simple action.

Kim cautiously gathered Athena in her arms, and then moved to stand next to Shego. Her free arm went around Shego's waist, offering support to the woman who was still not completely steady on her feet.

"Get out," James ordered once gain. "Never come back here."

They both turned to leave, and didn't stop to try and argue with Kim's enraged father. They walked out the front door of Kim's childhood home and continued walking. They kept on, Shego leaning on Kim for false support until they reached the apartment they had taking temporary residence in. Once they got inside, Shego's limp disappeared. Athena's shyness evaporated, and Kim's tears had immediately dried.

Things had worked out just fine.


	3. Missing Nothing

**Disclaimers: I don't own Kim Possible. Also, please keep in mind that there is (M)ature content herein. This includes violence, explicit language and sexual content.**

**Missing Nothing**

It was quiet and not even Animatus was stirring. Kim and Shego had just reached out and managed to rock the entire world, and the world was quiet in its collective shock. No one knew what to say. People weren't supposed to come back from the dead. That was something that should be left to sci-fi and horror movies. It didn't happen in real life, and it certainly wasn't supposed to happen just when the world was getting used to Kim Possible not being in it.

Everyone had finally managed to stop comparing the new heroes that rose up in Kim's absence to her legacy. They had finally stopped saying that Kim Possible could do better, was better and no one could be quite as good. Everyone was slowly starting to forget that Kim Possible existed at all. Yet, in true Kim Possible fashion, she came back before anyone could really forget, and to top off her grand encore, she came back with the woman who had been blamed for her death, along with a child that she claimed was theirs.

Kim Possible couldn't just stumble back into life. She couldn't just drop in looking like shit. She had to come back looking as heroic as ever, if not a little better, a little more beautiful, a little more like a hero. When she had died she was still a teenager just breaking into her womanhood, and now she was nothing anyone had ever expected.

Right after Kim, Shego, and Athena had returned from Kim's parents' home, they had not rested. They had no time to rest. They were on a schedule and whether Kim's family wanted to accept them or not, they could not deviate from their plans. They had done the right thing by going to Kim's family first. They had given Ann and James a chance to see that their daughter was still alive. They were given the first introduction to the Kim that had returned to the world. It was their right to be the first ones to know, but a slow introduction back into the world wouldn't work.

They couldn't wait for Kim's parents to accept them. They couldn't wait for Kim's family to understand what was going on. They didn't have time to pander to people they hardly even cared for. Kim and Shego had goals that were greater than winning over Kim's family. They had a mission, and they would continue it whether or not Kim's family let them into their lives.

The mission took them straight to Global Justice the day after Kim's parents had been informed. They offered Shego up on a silver platter, daring Doctor Director to throw Shego into jail and press charges. They challenged her into taking some sort of action after letting her see the scars that marred their bodies from Animatus's world.

"Try to make me suffer," Shego had taunted the good Doctor. "Try to do something to me that years of torture could not."

They didn't speak of Animatus's research, and told no tales of the trials they had been forced to endure. They didn't talk about the alterations that had been made to their bodies. They gave away very little of all that they knew.

"There is an evil out there," Kim had calmly told the head of Global Justice. "We don't know its name, can't remember all it's done to us, but it's out there."

"And you've told your parents about this?" Betty Director had asked.

"No," Kim had looked away then. She had to make her pain look real. "We thought it best they don't know about everything. They didn't need to know that I was tortured."

"We said Kimmie had been in a coma," Shego had helpfully added. "Told them that I had lost my mind, which isn't so far from the truth."

The story Kim had told her mother about Shego being paralyzed was the same they had shared with the head of Global Justice. Kim made sure to use the same words she had told her mother. She didn't want to get caught up in her lies.

"You do realize it's very difficult to believe any of this?" Doctor Director hadn't known how to respond to something her mind wouldn't let her believe. "You have to tell me something that will make me believe you."

"We don't need you to believe us," Shego had instantly responded. "The only reason we're even here is because we thought you'd might like to know there's a war headed your way."

"How do I know you're not the one leading it?" Doctor Director had asked the both of them. "How do I know you're not the clones?"

"Test our DNA," They had been prepared for the question, so Kim was ready with their answer. "There's no such thing as a stable clone so if you see something irregular then you'll know we're the copies instead of the originals."

Betty Director didn't bother to feign hesitation when she took them up on the offer. She called in her team of scientists and had blood drawn from the women sitting in front of her. She politely asked them to stay while she was waiting for the results, not really offering them a choice in the matter.

Kim and Shego had no plans to leave Betty before they knew the results. They had taken a risk in offering up their DNA. They knew Animatus was very accomplished in his research, but they had been given no indication to believe that Animatus had stabilized human clones. They simply had to have faith in Animatus's talents. They had to have faith that Animatus had perfected them, like he so often claimed that he had. He had told them that they were his best clones. They had exceeded what he could have ever expected.

It had taken twelve hours for them to get the results. In that time, Athena had been introduced to Betty Director and the head of Global Justice had slowly allowed herself to believe in the story Kim and Shego were telling her. The more and more she interacted with them, the more she wanted to believe that they had managed to come back from the dead and that they were exactly who they said they were.

Betty Director wasn't an unfeeling woman. She had cared for Kim as she watched the young hero slowly growing into the woman she knew would be like none other. She had even been one of the few that mourned Shego's death. She understood that Shego had not intended to end Kim's life. If anything, by the simple fact that Shego had taken the fall with Kim, it showed that Shego cared more than anyone really gave her credit for. If Shego wanted to save herself, she would have found a way. She had always found a way to save herself before.

"It would appear," Betty Director had forced the lump in her throat down so that she could finish her announcement. "It would appear that as far as our scientists could decipher, you are Kim Possible and Shego, and that you are indeed Athena's parents."

"We never doubted that," Shego had hidden her initial relief and fell straight into her certainty.

Doctor Director had asked them again about the evil that they said was coming. This time, she wrote down the details that they could recall, but they didn't recall much. They told her to build up her supplies, and to train her agents. They cautioned her to be prepared.

After they left Global Justice, it wasn't long before someone recognized that Kim Possible was once again walking the streets. The world media got a hold of the information and suddenly everyone knew that Kim Possible and Shego weren't as dead as they were supposed to be. They were walking around together with a child held close to them as if they were the best of friends.

That's when the world erupted into silence. No one knew what to say, and those that did have something to say didn't know how to say it. Everyone was certain that Hallmark didn't make a card for this type of occasion. So, everyone kept their silence.

Kim and Shego rested in their small apartment, unwilling to fill the silent void with their own words. The less they talked the less chance of someone out there coming out to defy their words. They had come from a world that wasn't supposed to exist and that never should have existed. Global Justice's scientists had proven that.

They could fool everyone, because they were perfect duplicates. Animatus had made them perfect. He had made them undetectable to the human eye and the lengths of human science.

"We'll have to go back to my parents," Kim said as she absently stared out their bedroom window into the darkness of the night. "My father will accept me now that science has proven I'm his daughter."

Shego removed herself from their bed, and then moved over to her partner. She wrapped her arms around Kim's nude torso and pulled the smaller woman against the front of her body. "He'll find you."

"Hmm," Kim groaned and dropped her head against Shego's shoulder. "I didn't think it would be this easy."

Shego leaned down and placed a soft kiss against Kim's neck. "So, waiting for the results was easy for you?" She gently inquired. "I was terrified."

"I know," Kim maneuvered so that she could get a clear look into her lover's eyes. "I could feel it." Her hands moved to cover Shego's lower back. "I wasn't sure we were going to pass the test."

"It would have been fun if we had to fight our way out of there." Shego mused. "It's been a while since we've had a chance to…" She couldn't quite finish her thought. She didn't want to miss a single moment she had spent in Animatus's world. She didn't want to admit that she missed the fighting. She didn't want to admit that she missed the challenges that took her to the very limits of her control.

"We'll get that back," Kim didn't need Shego to finish the thought in order to understand it. "It's already started."

"I don't see how everyone here is too stupid to see it," Shego drew Kim closer to her. "How can no one see us? How can they not see what we are? I always thought everyone was stupid; I just never thought they were this stupid."

"Science tells them we're one thing and their eyes tell them to believe in the science," Kim flippantly answered.

"Some of them will see the truth," Shego's eyes glowed a little brighter in the darkness.

"Then we kill them if they get between us and Animatus." Kim's words held no remorse, no hesitation.

Shego laughed. "And what would your daddy think of you if he heard you say that, Princess?" She playfully asked.

"I've missed my family, Shego. You know that." Kim pulled away from Shego. "When we were with Animatus, I stopped imagining what it would be like to see them again because it hurt too much to think about."

"I know," Shego allowed Kim to pull further away from her.

"I stopped thinking about anyone who meant something to me. It was the only way I could survive." Kim's attention went back to the bedroom window. "I gave up the life I remembered." It was necessary and Kim didn't regret any of it. She and Shego had survived. That was the only thing that really mattered in the end. "This isn't my life. James Possible isn't my daddy; Animatus is."

Shego wrapped her arms back around Kim. She didn't need to say anything. This wasn't the first time either of them had acknowledged the disconnect that they felt between this world and the world they had lived in with Animatus. There wasn't a single part of either of their beings that regretted leaving Animatus's world, but they had to accept that his world had become their home.

His world was where they had been born, where they had fallen in love, and where their daughter had been born. It was a part of them more than any memory of this current world could ever be. Kim Possible and Shego, the ones that weren't the clones, would probably have felt like home if ever given the chance to return, but their clones felt out of place.

"Let's go out," Shego whispered into Kim's ear.

"What about Athena?"

"She's asleep and will be for the rest of the night." Besides, Athena was old enough to take care of herself for a little while. Animatus had made her much more resilient than other human children. He had improved upon her in the same way he had made improvements to her parents.

Kim offered no more protests. They quickly got dressed and then went out into the night. They prowled the streets, hunting for something or someone that would prove a bit of a challenge. They found little in the form of entertainment, but found plenty idiots that had been willing to get in their way.

When they returned to their apartment, they checked on Athena, who was still resting peacefully, and then cleaned away the blood that had found its way onto their bodies.

"Kimmie," Shego said as she was drying off her hair, "I think once we're through with Animatus, we should seriously consider what we're going to do with the world."

Kim captured the towel Shego was using to dry herself off with, and then threw it away from them. "Let's talk about that later." Kim leaned in and captured Shego's lips with her own. She still had the adrenaline pumping through her body from the few fights they were able to involve themselves in, and the familiar need she felt for her partner's body was flowing through her veins.

"Fuck," Shego groaned as she felt Kim's hands take possession of her flesh. It had been a while since the beast that lived inside of Kim felt the need to dominate Shego, and it had been even longer since Kim had given into it.

Kim slammed Shego's body against the bathroom wall, managing to crack the tile with the force of the impact. Her hands roughly squeezed Shego's breasts while her mouth bit down onto Shego's neck. Kim's left hand released its hold on Shego's breast and roughly dragged its way down Shego's body, leaving deep red marks on the dark green skin.

Oddly, Shego thought right before Kim's fingers slammed into her center, this was something else she wouldn't admit she missed about Animatus's world. She didn't have to admit to something Kim already understood.


	4. A Father Worries

**Disclaimer: Kim Possible belongs to Disney not me.**

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. They are appreciated.**

**A Father Worries**

It was a difficult thing--trying to deceive the world. They had to carefully measure every word they spoke and every action they took. Once the novelty of having Kim Possible and Shego back from the dead had worn off, everyone was looking for the lies. People were ransacking through everything they did and said looking for the inconsistencies to pop out like a jack hidden within its box.

Kim and Shego welcomed the doubt. They covered themselves in it, letting it build a wall between them and the truth. They asked no one to take them for their words. They challenged the unbelievers to step forward and to prove that they were somehow false. Let the doubters step forward and bury themselves in their own uncertainties while Kim and Shego reaped the benefits from it.

They understood a fundamental rule of science, taught to school children in elementary school science classes: a hypothesis must be proven to become a fact. Newton's apple might have fallen from the tree, but that didn't make gravity real. If people wanted to prove that Kim and Shego were fake, then they'd need a lot more than an apple falling from a tree. They'd have to find solid proof, proof that could not be denied by science.

"We're not asking you to believe us," Shego had challenged. "If we hadn't seen it, we wouldn't have believed it either, but still..." Her eyes had met with Kim's intentionally showing their solidarity in her statement. "If you can make what happened to us unreal, then do it. Tell us we are wrong. Tell us our nightmares really were all in our heads. Prove that we are lying. Give us all some peace of mind. Tell us that our Bogeyman is fake."

Neither of them spoke another word in a public forum about their experiences. It was unnecessary. People had seen what they had wanted, and more than just a few took Shego up on her challenge. So far, no one could make their theories about Kim's and Shego's lies fact. Too many had been naïve enough to take on the burden of proof, when the burden should have stayed with Kim and Shego. They went out to disprove something that Kim and Shego had never even bothered to prove in the first place. They went out to debunk an unestablished fact, giving more weight to Kim's and Shego's claims than they could have conjured alone.

The rest, those that did easily believe, all they wanted was for Kim Possible to make their world safe again. They wanted their hero back. They wanted everything to return to the normal they knew before Kim Possible proved that even heroes die.

Kim and Shego had learned many hard lessons from Animatus, one being to never pass up an opportunity to attack your enemy. Always take the openings when they are offered, because they may never be offered again. That was the only reason Kim had called upon her old friend Wade Load. She needed him to bring her website back up. She needed him to act as her dispatcher once more so that she could show the world how much like the old Kim Possible she really was.

"What about Shego?" Wade hesitantly asked as he sat across from Kim and Shego in his own dorm room. As soon as Kim had called him, he was more than eager to see her again. He invited her over to his place so that they could reunite. He had not expected Kim to bring Shego and Athena with her.

"What about me?" Shego leaned forward, effortlessly intimidating the young man.

"I mean...it's just," Wade stuttered as his eyes fell down to Shego's legs then quickly back up to her face. He had been taught that it wasn't polite to stare at those who were physically challenged.

"It's just going to be me, Wade," Kim put her hand onto Shego's thigh. "It wouldn't be safe for Shego."

Wade nodded solemnly. He was unsure how to respond. Before Shego had been taken away, Wade knew that she was a very proud woman. He couldn't at all comprehend how Shego now felt to be limited by a broken body.

"Don't get any wrong ideas, Chubby," Shego lit up her hands with plasma. Forcing the green burn to look weaker than Wade had ever seen it before. "I can still fight if I have to."

"Of course," Wade did his best to sound encouraging and supportive, but his best fell short even to his own ears.

"So," Kim's voice interrupted Wade's uncomfortable silence, "when do you think you'll have everything back up?"

"Well, I could have it up in just a few minutes but," Wade's eyes fell to his clasped hands. "Are you sure you really want to do this, Kim? I mean, the last time..." He forced his eyes up, hoping that Kim couldn't see the tears forming. "You died, Kim. Wouldn't it be better if you just retired and spent some time with your family?"

"I didn't die," Kim gently replied. "I was taken, and what are the odds of that happening again, really?"

"This isn't a game, Kim."

Kim allowed herself to be somewhat surprised by the force behind Wade's words. The last time she had seen Wade he was a recluse boy, bright eyed and eager to please. The Wade in front of her now, was not that same boy. He was still overweight, but not nearly as much as he had been. He was growing into his manhood and becoming someone very different than the boy she had left behind. Like many others, Kim's death had changed him.

"We're all different than who we were before," Kim's eyes bore into Wades. "Things have changed so much, more than I can even realize. But saving people, helping them, Wade, that's who I am. That's always been who I am and will always be who I am. I'm not going to let anyone change that, not my family, not Shego, and not you."

Wade turned to Shego, waiting for her to speak out and say something that refuted what Kim had just told him, but Shego kept her silence. She had no problem with Kim going out to save the world. She knew there was no one around that could defeat Kim, because Kim had become too powerful for this world. Animatus had evolved Kim from just an athletic human female into a superhuman. He had taken away Kim's human weaknesses and added in their place his own ideas of strength.

"When will you have the site up, Wade?" Kim forced Wade's attention back to her.

Wade sighed and gave a small shake of his head. In his heart, he knew that the world needed Kim Possible. He had always believed that; he would always believe that. "You'll probably have your first mission by tomorrow morning."

Kim smiled. "Good."

"Have you talked to Ron?" Wade forced himself to ask. He needed to know if he needed to put Ron's information back up on the website as well.

Kim's smile fell. "We haven't had a chance to talk yet." She hadn't bothered to return any of his phone calls. "I'm not sure what to say to him. I'm still trying to deal with my family."

The turmoil Wade heard in Kim's voice when she spoke about her personal life, in a odd sense made Wade feel calmer. It offered him the comfort simply seeing her in person couldn't. It reminded him of the old Kim who had always been confident in her missions but insecure about her personal relationships. It reminded him of the fallible side of Kim she had shown to her friends. "You could tell him you're okay," Wade suggested. "He was really broken up when you died, Kim. He probably just wants to hear your voice."

"Everyone seems to have been broken up when Kim disappeared, Chubby." Shego snapped. "She can't make phone calls to them all."

"I'm not saying she should," Wade defended himself. "But it's Ron."

"Is that supposed mean something to me?" Shego asked, understanding full well the connection Kim had had with Ron before they had both died was significant. Ron had meant something to Kim. If Kim had been given the chance to stay with Ron they probably would have been married by now with children, but that's not how things had happened. Her Kim would never give Ron the same attention he had garnered from the hero before.

Shego cared very little whether Kim ever talked to Ron again, much like she had cared very little whether or not Kim reconnected with her family. The connecftions that they made now were for strategic reasons. They needed Kim's family. They needed Betty Director. They needed Wade. Ron? Ron was a liability. If he wanted to take back up the task of being Kim's sidekick he might be dangerous. He might stumble onto something that they didn't want anyone to know. He had always had an odd uncanny way of becoming unerringly competent at the most inopportune times.

"Shego, don't," Kim warned her partner. "Wade's right. I should call Ron."

"Whatever," Shego rolled her eyes and then reached down to pick Athena up off of the ground where the toddler had been mindlessly playing with a small action figure Wade had unwittingly left within her reach. "Athena and I will be waiting outside for when you're ready to leave."

Kim and Wade both silently watched as Shego walked out of Wade's dorm room with Athena in her arms. She was acting like a jealous lover, acting like someone who was afraid they couldn't hold onto someone they loved. Wade wasn't surprised by the jealousy he saw, part of him had expected it. It fit into the preconceptions he had of the Shego he remembered.

"She hasn't really changed all that much has she?" Wade's question didn't sound very much like a question at all. Wade had understood the kind of person Shego had been, and he understood that people like her didn't really change. He believed that they could alter their appearance and alter who they associated with, but they'd always be a villain underneath the surface. He believed this just as strongly as he believed that Kim would always be a hero. It was his own shortsightedness that made him forget that Shego was a hero before she became a villain.

"Please," Kim softly pleaded, "don't talk badly about her in front of me. I don't like when people do that."

"I'm sorry," Wade immediately apologized. "I didn't mean..."

"Yes you did," Kim interrupted. "Everyone always means to."

Wade bowed his head, unfamiliar with the shame he was currently feeling because he had somehow caused Kim pain. "I'm sorry," he apologized again. "It'll just take some time for me to get used to her being around."

"I know," Kim stood up, preparing herself to leave. She didn't really want to spend any more of her time hanging out with Wade. She had accomplished what she needed to; and while a sense of nostalgia had taken over her as she sat across from him, it wasn't enough to make her want to stay.

Wade stood along with Kim. He was trying to be polite. "I'll get everything ready and will call you when the site's back up." He offered in hopes to get back on Kim's good side.

Kim nodded but said nothing. She walked to the door and put her hand on the knob, but before she opened the door she turned back to Wade, her green eyes full of pain. "I know you don't understand why I'm with Shego. No one does." She laughed humorlessly. "I don't think anyone ever will. But I do love her, Wade, and it's hard for me to watch everyone treat her so badly like somehow the pain and torture she went through wasn't as real as mine. I don't know how to make people understand."

It was like he had been hit with a poisonous dart. Wade's body collapsed back down to his chair as if he had become paralyzed. He had never seen Kim look at him with such raw emotion before. "I'm--"

"Sorry?" Kim finished for the shocked man. "I know. Everyone is always sorry." She turned back to the door, and this time her hand twisted the knob. She stepped out of the dorm room before Wade had gathered himself enough to formulate some kind of response to the woman he had considered to be one of his best friends.

Shego was waiting outside of the dormitory for Kim. Athena was holding onto Shego's legs, her attention focused on all the students walking around her. A few of them had stopped to pay Athena attention, asking Shego idle questions about the toddler's age. Only a few of them had even realized they were casually approaching the woman who had been all over the news lately.

Kim went up to Shego and then wrapped her arms around the taller woman's waist. "Everything okay, Kimmie?" Shego asked.

"Fine." Kim pulled Shego more tightly to her. "Why do you ask?"

"I felt something," Shego answered, knowing that Kim would understand that she had felt a strong emotion coming from Kim through the physical bond Animatus had formed between them.

Kim sighed. "It was nothing." She didn't want to admit that she had lost the tight control she had over her emotions for just a split second. She didn't want Shego to know that the things that people said about her lover were really beginning to bother her.

"They're not going to stop, Kim." Shego reached down and ran her hand through Athena's thick dark hair. "But they'll eventually wise up."

"Okay." Kim leaned over and placed a gentle kiss against the back of Shego's neck, not at all caring who was watching them.

They stood, wrapped up in each other for another few minutes taking the opportunity to enjoy their freedom. They knew how important it was for them to enjoy the peaceful moments that were given to them. It was another hard lesson Animatus had taught them.

Eventually, Kim reached down and pick up their daughter. They walked through Middleton University until they reached the vehicle that had been donated to them through the courtesy of Global Justice. Doctor Director hadn't wanted them to be without transportation. It wasn't safe for them to walk everywhere with the big evil brewing up a nefarious plot.

They drove back to their apartment, knowing they had little time to prepare themselves for the dinner Kim's parents had invited them to. It was the first time they had bothered to contact Kim since her father had thrown them out. It had taken them time for Kim's parents to put aside their doubts and their fear of being hurt, but they were now willing to take a chance, and Kim was very thankful that they had finally contacted her.

Kim was hurriedly bathing Athena while Shego was reapplying the makeup that helped her look weaker than she actually was. It was hard for her to keep up her appearance since her skin would at times become so warm that it melted away the makeup. It wasn't something she could control, and wasn't anything she had tried to control in Animatus's realm. Her heated skin had long since stopped burning Kim. Animatus knew that it wasn't logical for Kim to continually be damaged by Shego's ability to generate extreme heat, so he fixed the problem. Kim recalled that that particular enhancement had been particularly painful.

Animatus had his robots strap her down to one of the metal beds in his lab, while they continually injected her with a serum he had developed from Shego's DNA. Kim had felt like her skin was burning off from within. She had passed out from the pain more than once, and had in a fevered haze had begged one of Animatus's robots to kill her.

When her treatments had been over with, Animatus had heartlessly confessed that he had made a mistake in his calculations and had given the serum to her before it had been ready. He had not foreseen her success in surviving his miscalculations. Her survival meant that he could intensify her trials. She had reached a new level in his research and he could start testing her in ways he had not yet prepared for.

"I have not yet managed to understand why you wished to return to your human world."

Shego dropped the brush she was using to apply her makeup. It clinked against the edges of the porcelain sink and then dropped to the ground. Athena stopped her playful splashing and the laugh building inside of Kim's throat from being hit again with Athena's bath water died. All of their attention went to the small battery operated radio they kept in the bathroom to keep Athena entertained while the toddler bathed. In their rush to get ready for dinner, they hadn't bothered to turn it on.

"I have deduced that you were much more content under my care."

"Well Animatus," Shego casually turned her body so that she was facing the radio, "we don't expect an emotionless empty shell like you to understand very much."

"I understand more than you give me credit for, Shego." Animatus's monotoned words bounced off the tiled space, giving his words the strength and validity he emotionlessly aimed for.

"What is it you want, Animatus?" Kim gathered Athena in her arms, readying herself for a fight.

"I want what I have always wanted, Kim Possible."

"Research," Kim spit out the word like the curse it had become to her.

"Correct." Animatus's voice carried through the static trying to interfere with his conversation. "You have spent enough time away from your home. It is now time you returned."

"We're not going back, Ani," Shego took a step towards the radio, looking for something that would give her an understanding of how exactly Animatus had managed to broadcast to and receive transmission from the device.

"You do not belong there." Animatus's voice sounded dangerously like there was an emotion lurking under his words. "You belong with me. You are mine."

"We don't belong to anyone." Shego cautiously reached out and placed her hand onto the radio.

"They will figure out your secrets and they will destroy you."

"You almost sound like you're concerned for us, Ani." Shego picked up the radio after suffering no ill effects from touching it.

"I simply do not think it would be logical for my work to be destroyed." Animatus explained himself. It wasn't something he often did, but he wanted them to understand how much risk they were taking. He could not duplicate them.

"A father worries, you mean," Shego flippantly replied as she opened up the bathroom window.

"I will have you back." Animatus's voice filtered through the radio as Shego threw it out of the window.

Kim watched as the radio landed onto the ground and broke into various shaped pieces. She shook her head and gave a soft sigh. "We should finish getting ready." She turned away from the window. "My parents are expecting us."

"It won't take me long," Shego turned back to the mirror. "I'm almost done. Go ahead and get Athena dressed."

They both returned to what they had been doing before Animatus had interrupted them. They couldn't waste any more time. Animatus had found them. Their time had run out.


	5. Contrived

**Disclaimer: Kim Possible belongs to Disney. **

**Rating: Please remember this is rated M.**

**Contrived**

They showed up at Kim's parents' house dressed in their regular costumes. Shego looked weak and injured. Kim looked like a radiant superhero and Athena an innocent helpless child. The conversation with Animatus had changed nothing and would change nothing. He had a vested interest in their survival and both Kim and Shego understood that. He wouldn't take any action to expose them to the world; he wasn't willing to lose his research, his only reason for living.

Ann and James welcomed their daughter into their home. They asked no questions about where Kim had been, and asked nothing about Athena. Shego's presence was tolerated throughout a simple meal of baked chicken breast and brown rice. The meal tasted bland, and the conversation was bland. Kim and Shego expected the whole night would be filled with awkward blandness, that is until Ann casually announced that Ron Stoppable was going to be joining them later.

Kim dropped her fork onto the table and calmly wiped her mouth with her napkin. "Why didn't you ask me if I minded him coming?" She asked.

"He's your best friend, Kimmie," her father answered as if Kim should have already understood why they had taken it upon themselves to invite Ron over.

"You mean he was her best friend," Shego pushed her plate away from her.

"It'll be good for you to see him again, Kim," Ann ignored Shego's comment as did James.

"It's going to hurt him," Kim stared down at her food.

"What do you mean?" James looked over to his wife, wondering if she understood what their daughter meant. "He'll be thrilled to see you."

Kim met her father's confused gaze. "Is he ready to see my child?" She reached out and covered Shego's hand with her own. "Is he ready to see Shego?"

The answer was of course: No, Ron wasn't prepared to see Athena. He wasn't prepared to see Shego. He didn't know what to expect and all he had to go on was what he had heard on the news. Kim's parents hadn't been purposefully vague about Kim's life, they just didn't know any more than Ron already did. Much of the information they had gained was from watching the same breaking newscasts as Ron had.

James stared uncomfortably at the hand Kim had resting atop Shego's. "Ron knows about your... affiliation with Shego." Affiliation was the only word James could use to make sense of his daughter's relationship with the green skinned woman. He didn't understand it, hadn't even accepted it really, and was doing his best to act civil in front of them both.

His gut clenched uncomfortably as he sat across from the two young women. He couldn't quite yet stomach the facts as they had been presented to him. Ann had been the one to talk him into staying for the dinner, urging him to give Kim a chance. In some ways, he realized, it was easier to accept Kim's death than it was accepting her back into their lives.

"Besides," James continued, tearing his eyes away from Kim's and Shego's joined hands, "he's become a fine young man, Kim, and you ought to give him a chance."

"A chance at what?" Shego was much better at handling her anger than she had been before she entered into Animatus's world, but she was not yet re-acclimated to the level of disrespect that was afforded to her in this world. Shego and Kim had been the strongest in their community. They had been the leaders and were only second to Animatus. No one in that world would have dared show her the level of disregard that Kim's father was showing her now. No one would have been brave enough.

She had recognized that there would be a change in her status as she bulldozed her way into Kim's life. She and Kim had even encouraged it by the choices they had made in how they presented themselves. But Animatus's visit had not left Shego wholly unaffected. They came to this dinner because it was necessary, and Shego would even venture to guess that in some way spending time with James and Ann was important to Kim. There was still that part of Kim that Animatus couldn't 'enhance' away and Shego grudgingly respected that part of Kim that could still feel genuine emotion towards her family, her friends, a former life that wasn't even really hers to claim. Against all reason, Kim still wanted their approval and their love. She wanted to prove to them all that she was once again worthy of everything they had so freely given to and for her before Animatus had taken the hero away.

Shego had yet found that same genuine affection towards this world that perhaps she had at one time felt. She had only given brief moments of consideration for her family and Drakken, the man she had spent the last few pre-Animatus years of her life with. She cared little about what her brothers thought of her reappearance and hadn't bothered to ask anyone what had become of the scientist who had employed her.

She believed that it was simply more natural for her not to care about what people thought of her. It was easier for her to let go, and she considered the ability an asset much like Animatus had. He had only ever sought to alter her physical body, never her mind. That's not to say that he didn't on occasion do his best to drive her to the brink of sanity, but he had not attempted to alter her brain chemistry as he had done with Kim.

And still, Shego looked over at her redheaded partner, still despite all his science and all his cold desire Animatus could not completely drive away the part of Kim that simply gave a damn and unselfishly cared for others. Perhaps, Shego conceded, Animatus had been able to dampen it. Kim's intensity of unselfish concern for the greater good for humanity had lessoned throughout their time together. Kim had focused less on what was best for everyone and became more concerned with what was best for Shego, Athena, and herself.

Shego looked back to James who was looking at her like he had the morose desire to peel her flesh slowly from her bones. "Ron deserves the chance to be her friend again ," he said, his words not sounding nearly as hostile as his look implied they should. "He should be given the opportunity to get to know her again. They both deserve that."

"He said he probably wouldn't stay very long," Ann tried to diffuse the tension that was building between her husband and Shego. She didn't want James to jump across the table and wrap his hands around Shego's throat –an impulse he had admitted to having while they were alone in the kitchen earlier. Ann's one and only goal for the night was to survive it and to make sure that everyone else survived it as well. Later, after Kim, Shego, and Athena had left, Ann had every intention of yelling and screaming out all her confusion, anger, and pain until her throat was raw, but for now she would keep herself and her family from turning into something worthy of reality television.

"It'll be good to see him again," Kim faced her mother, not yet wanting to look back at her father's rancor. She had never seen her father so openly aggressive towards another person, and she was uncertain as to how long she could sit idly by and watch her father silently wish death upon Shego. Eventually, she would not be able to hold herself back and would rise to Shego's defense, and Kim suspected her father wouldn't appreciate being threatened with violence if he continued to disrespect her lover. "I just want to be fair to him."

The doorbell rang then, as if Ron had somehow known that it was time for him to make his entrance. James took the offered distraction, and got up from the table to answer the door. Shego, too, took the opportunity to gather her patience by taking Athena to the restroom. Ann and Kim sat across from each other at the table and looked at each other in silence, both with a weak smile on their face. A tenuous connection had formed between them, an understanding that hadn't been given a chance to exist before Kim had died.

It was the first time Ann had felt any connection to her daughter since Kim's return. She almost didn't recognize it for what it was, but she remembered sharing a similar awkward smile with her own mother when she had first brought James over to have dinner with her parents. Her father and James hadn't really gotten along, at first. Her father had never thought that James was good enough for her and her mother was always trying to diffuse the tension that would build around the dinner table.

The memory almost collapsed Ann into a fit of tears. She never thought she would ever get a chance to share a moment like this with her daughter. It was one of the many things she had been certain was denied to her upon her daughter's death. She would be the one that would look disapprovingly at Tim's and Jim's partners while James offered their son's understanding looks and urged Ann to grant some leniency. She wasn't supposed to get a chance to share these understanding looks with her daughter.

"I should get the dessert ready," Ann practically jumped out of her seat. She needed to move, otherwise her tears would begin falling and she wouldn't be able to stop them.

Kim stood as well. "I'll help."

"No, no." Ann kept a smile on her face. "You should go in and see Ron, I'm sure he's not here to spend the night talking with your father."

Kim nodded. "Okay." She looked helplessly around her, hoping something would manage to distract her before she stepped out to see Ron, but nothing did.

Ron's eyes turned to her when she entered the room. They roamed over her body assessing all the changes that had occurred over the time they had been apart. When his eyes fell back into Kim's, there was no hiding the fact that he still believed that Kim Possible was the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Hey," He managed, no other words quite coming to him.

"It's been a long time," Kim joked. "You've uh," Kim had never thought Ron was the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on, but he had a certain charm to him that Kim had found attractive. She saw no trace of that charm in him now. His body had filled out, there was more muscle to his frame. He was ruggedly handsome, but he looked worn out and weary. "You look older."

Ron chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Kim hurried to apologize. "I didn't mean... it's just a surprise to see you." She took a few heavy steps towards him and forced her arms apart so that she could bring Ron into an uncomfortable hug.

Ron's arms wrapped around Kim's slender frame, but oddly he felt more breakable in her arms than she did in his. He had never felt physically superior to Kim, but hadn't ever felt quite as feeble as he felt now. He pulled away from her, not quite able to meet her eyes. He had promised himself before he ever raised his hand to ring the doorbell that he would not fall apart when he finally got a chance to look into Kim's eyes, so thought it best now if he didn't look into her eyes at all. He felt no hope that he would not crumble into a massive heap of tears if he took the chance to look directly into Kim's eyes now.

"You look good, Kim." He felt his cheeks beginning to flush, and instantly was transported back to a time where he loved Kim and Kim had briefly loved him back.

"Yeah," Kim laughed somewhat self-consciously "I know I've changed."

Ron did his best to smile back. "Only for the better."

"Thanks, Ron."

"Well," James looked between the two young adults standing in his living room, "it's good to see you two together again."

"It's just like the good old days." Shego sarcastically added as she sauntered into the living room, Athena held firmly in her arms. She positioned herself as close to Kim as she could. Athena reached out for her other parent and Kim wordlessly took her daughter into her arms aware that Shego was displaying their familial togetherness for Ron's benefit.

Ron, to everyone's surprise, didn't even flinch. He cautiously approached the child Kim held in her arms and guilelessly smiled. He briefly introduced himself to the toddler. "She looks a lot like you," he told Kim. "She looks like the both of you," he added giving Shego the briefest of looks. "She's beautiful."

"Thanks." The common courtesy fell out of Shego's mouth before she could take it back. She was unaccustomed to acceptance, and had already prepared herself for another confrontation. Ron Stoppable had never liked her and she had never felt any particular affection for him either.

"Yeah," Ron dragged his eyes away from Shego and forced himself to look at Kim. "So Wade called me up. He said something about you going out to save the world again."

"What?" James asked. Kim hadn't bothered to mention anything about world saving during dinner.

"Dad it's nothing," Kim covered her eyes with her free hand.

"It's not nothing, Kimberly," James vitriol turned once again to Shego. "Was this your idea?"

"My idea?" Shego laughed. "I hope you aren't serious."

The idea was ridiculous, James realized. Shego didn't care about the world. "Why would you want to do this, Kim?"

To Ron, the answer was simple despite the complicated reasoning Shego and Kim had manufactured. "It's who she is, Mr. Possible."

"You would go along with this?" James turned to Ron, feeling like his only ally had abandoned him.

Ron dropped his gaze towards the ground. "No," he shook his head. "I wouldn't."

"What?" Kim asked. "What do you mean?"

"I watched you both die, Kim. I don't want to see that again. So, I'm not gonna try to talk you out of it, but I won't be there for it either." Ron's eyes never left the floor. This was the first time he had ever told Kim that he wouldn't be there watching out for her., and the admission had surprisingly hurt Kim's feelings despite her every intention of denying him a place at her side. She felt rejected.

"Okay." Kim whispered. "But if you change your mind, I wouldn't mind having you by my side again." It was a lie. She would mind his presence. She minded it now.

"I can't believe this," James's anger had finally become too much for him to hold onto. He needed to leave and give himself a chance to calm down. Ann had been in the kitchen for a longer time than necessary so he knew she had already hidden away from their daughter and he felt no shame in hiding away either. "I need to go to work."

"Dad." Kim attempted to stop her father but he paid her no attention. He walked away from her, not bothering to say anything else.

"It's time we leave, Kimmie." Shego reached out her hand and let it land onto Kim's hip. "Why don't you go say your goodbyes to your mother."

Kim gave Ron an apologetic smile and then walked away, not at all concerned with leaving him alone with Shego. Ron looked around the room nervously. "I should probably go," he muttered. "It was good to see you both."

Shego raised her brow. "Both?" She was starting to get the distinct impression that Ron Stoppable didn't hate her like everyone else seemed to.

Ron's eyes shifted to Shego's face then just as quickly shifted away. "I was there when you both um...died."

"I remember." Shego blandly replied. "I was there, too."

"Yeah," Ron unnecessarily cleared his throat. I uh...saw that..." He took a deep breath and forced himself to look into Shego's bored expression. "You died trying to save her."

Shego knew Ron was a liability. Kim knew it as well. He was too dangerous to have around. "Is that what happened?"

"You don't remember?" Ron couldn't quite tell if Shego was being serious or not. He could never read the woman well and he knew better than to try, but despite what Shego silently implied she did remember what had remembered on the day of her death. She and Kim had never talked about it, not explicitly, but they both remembered their last moments of life.

"Your friendship has always meant a lot to Kim," Shego's bored tone gave away no answers to Ron's question. "Thanks for stopping by."

It was a dismissal and Ron understood it as such. He nodded and said a brief goodbye. He wished Kim well and said that he would be in touch, and then walked away. Shego carefully watched him go.

Kim returned from saying her difficult goodbyes to her mother and then she and Shego left. They did not return to the apartment they had been occupying. Animatus had found them there and they were not ready to return. Instead, they went to another hideaway they had found in the forgotten depths of Middleton.

"What do you think we should do about him?" Kim asked after Shego had shared with her what Ron had confessed to knowing.

"It's hard to say," Shego answered as she scrubbed away the makeup she had earlier reapplied. "We always knew he could be dangerous."

Kim stared at her partner's reflection in the mirror. "If he knows the truth about what happened, then why does everyone still hate you?"

Shego threw the towel she had used to wipe away the faux layers of pale green that covered her body and then turned to face Kim. "He's one voice of truth amongst millions of liars. No one has bothered to listen to him."

They both knew that if people started listening then they would have to start answering questions that would unravel the story they were asking everyone to believe. Everyone knew that they had fallen, and everyone believed that they had died. Ron had actually seen what had happened. He saw Kim dive for the hovercraft and he saw her fall short. He saw Kim grab onto Shego for support and he had seen Shego reach down to do her best to pull the hero up from a deadly fall.

Drakken saw nothing; he accelerated the hovercraft and Shego had latched on to whatever she could to prevent herself from falling. Kim's weight versus the force of acceleration was too much. She could have kicked Kim free and saved herself, but she didn't. Instead, Shego made a conscious decision to let go. She decided to die alongside Kim. Shego didn't kill Kim; Kim had killed Shego.

And as Animatus had awoken their 'enhanced' bodies he knew the truth Kim had not yet discovered. He knew that Shego had somehow fallen in love with her self-declared enemy. He coveted that knowledge and used it to manipulate his experiments and to control his subjects.

Kim and Shego both clearly remembered the last moments they had spent inside of Animatus's world. They clearly recalled looking at the monitors and seeing the various versions of themselves. On most of those screens, the Kim and Shego shown were not lovers. In some of them, they hardly even appeared to be friends. For whatever reason, in whatever circumstances Animatus had created, Kim and Shego simply weren't meant to be together. Their union wasn't inevitable destiny; it was contrived destiny, and some small part of Ronald Stoppable understood that. Kim had not loved her enemy, because if she had then she would have let go of Shego before they fell; she wouldn't have taken Shego down with her.

"I do love you," Kim grabbed onto Shego's hand and pulled the other woman down onto her. She laid back onto the bed thankful for the weight settling atop her.

"I know." Shego whispered before she took possession of Kim's lips with her own. She ran a hand down Kim's body, pushing any thoughts of Ron Stoppable deep into the back of her mind. He had only seen a shadow of the truth. She pulled her lips away from Kim's. "I'm going to fuck you until you're begging me to stop."

"Ugh," Kim grunted as Shego's nails tore roughly through her clothes taking bits of flesh away as well.

Ron could never understand this. He could never understand what Animatus had turned them into.

Kim blindly ripped at Shego's own clothes, darkly satisfied when she caught the sent of Shego's blood mixing with her own.

No one could understand them now, not even their original selves.


End file.
